The UK public sector workforce faces significant pressure, with many areas experiencing increasing workforce and operational challenges. Traditional responses, such as broad recruitment campaigns focused on headcount, have sometimes had unintended longer-term impacts like reduced productivity, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and misalignments of skill and technological requirements.
Amid unprecedented economic headwinds, the UK must take bold action. By strategically investing in cutting-edge technology, streamlined processes, and upskilled personnel, public sector departments have an opportunity to break free from reactive staffing cycles and usher in a new era of efficiency and performance – one where:
- Automation and digitisation can eliminate burdensome administrative tasks, empowering staff to focus on critical, high-value work that requires human judgment and expertise;
- Seamless data-sharing and integration can tear down silos, enabling swifter, more informed decision-making; and
- A commitment to continuous improvement can foster an agile, innovative culture that attracts and retains top talent.
The path forward is clear: In place of short-sighted, reactive recruitment drives, the justice and immigration systems must proactively redesign their systems and structures for the future, linking recruitment to retention strategies. Only then can it build a resilient, high-performing workforce capable of tackling the immense challenges it faces – and delivering effective, responsive public services.
Read on to discover the unintended consequences mass hiring without adequate support is having across the justice and immigration systems, and a better way forward.
The high cost of quick fixes: How reactive recruitment undermines effectiveness
In policing, nearly 40 percent of officers now have less than five years' experience. Prisons have seen the number of officers with over 10 years of service drop by nearly half since 2017 (from 11,100 to 6,681 in 2023). The asylum system faces inconsistencies and increased costs due to accelerated recruitment.
Rapid hiring strains training systems and supervisors, making it harder for new recruits to receive proper preparation and impacting coordination between agencies. With turnover often highest among new hires, it perpetuates a cycle of inexperience and instability.
It's time to reimagine staff deployment, utilise highly skilled people within the workforce, and ensure they want to stay in public service. Moving beyond reactive recruitment is crucial for building an effective, resilient justice and immigration systems.
Breaking the cycle: A new path forward
There is a different way – one focused on strategic workforce planning and operational optimisation, without the need for repeating large and expensive hiring sprees. Picture this:
- Operating models with appropriate spans of control that ensure efficient resource allocation.
- Comprehensive career frameworks that provide clear progression paths for employees.
- Targeted training programmes that equip middle management with the skills they need to lead effectively.
- Technology and process optimisations that enhance workforce effectiveness.
- Automation and AI that handle routine tasks, freeing up staff to focus on complex decision-making.
By implementing these strategies, organisations build resilient and adaptable workforces capable of delivering better outcomes without relying on constant hiring sprees. Staff are better equipped, productivity improves through technological support, and flexible teams adapt nimbly to changing requirements. The focus shifts from simply adding headcount to optimising existing resources through improved processes, training, and technology.
Below, we explore in more detail by looking at police forces, asylum workers, and prison and probation officers.
A reimagined workforce
The road ahead is challenging but filled with opportunity. With the right strategies, public sector bodies can optimise processes, harness automation, and create an environment that attracts and retains top talent. The result? A workforce equipped to navigate the complexities of 21st-century public service.
This transformation won't happen overnight. But the alternative - a perpetual cycle of shortages, backlogs, and burnout - is no longer tenable. It's time to rewrite the story, investing in people and systems to inspire a new era of public sector performance. The future of our critical services depends on it.
The potential impact of this reimagined approach can be seen by examining three key areas of the justice and immigration systems in more detail:
Rising asylum application numbers have created substantial case backlogs and extended processing times, raising questions about building a more resilient workforce without expanding headcount. The current pattern of reactive hiring without adequate training, coupled with outdated systems and fragmented technology, has led to high turnover, inconsistent decisions, and operational inefficiencies across siloed platforms. A more strategic solution centers on four key elements:
- Comprehensive training with clear career progression;
- Flexible workforce planning to handle volume fluctuations;
- Viewing asylum processing as an end-to-end customer journey; and
- Automation of routine tasks.
By integrating these process improvements, automation capabilities, upskilling initiatives, and enhanced leadership support, government departments can create a more agile and efficient workforce that delivers better outcomes through optimised resources rather than large-scale recruitment.
Prison and remand populations across England and Wales have hit record levels, straining the aging prison estate and prompting extraordinary measures including the SDS40 early release scheme and 'Probation Reset' initiative. While mass recruitment campaigns, including the services' first TV advertisements, have been implemented to address these challenges, this approach has proven inadequate without addressing root causes and implementing corresponding cultural changes, creating a destructive cycle of hiring, attrition, and loss of experienced staff. Despite meeting national staffing targets, the number of prison officers with over 10 years' experience has fallen from 11,100 in 2017 to 6,681 in 2023, with only 25 percent of band 3-5 officers having decade-long experience, while new recruits show high intention to leave and increasing stress-related absences.
The Probation Service, traditionally known for staff retention, now struggles as new staff lack adequate learning opportunities and supervision, affecting prison resettlement and offender supervision quality. A more effective solution would prioritise better support and role clarity for new staff, implement data-driven recruitment with flexible workforce modeling, and create operating models emphasising system resilience and staff wellbeing to break the cycle and build a more stable, experienced workforce.
Ready to start your journey toward a reimagined workforce? Connect with North Highland’s UK Public Sector team to get started on your way toward resilient, high-performing teams prepared to tackle today’s challenges and deliver for citizens.
